AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint are all launching the iPhone 4S next Friday, but AT&T is doing its best to ensure consumers know that not all iPhones are created equal. The presence of HSPA 14.4 gives the iPhone 4S a theoretical download speed ceiling of 14.4Mbps, but only if you’re on an HSPA network. Here in the U.S., Verizon Wireless and Sprint both employ EV-DO 3G networks while AT&T customers will enjoy speeds over HSPA that are twice as fast, the company says. ”We can’t wait for our customers to experience the incredible new iPhone 4S on our 4G network and enjoy download speeds of up to twice as fast,” said AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega in a statement. “When you combine the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network with iPhone 4S, as well as our new pricing for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, we think we have the best iPhone line up in the industry.” AT&T’s full press release follows below.

AT&T will begin to throttle data speeds during the first week of October, 9to5 Mac reported on Thursday. The carrier could move to throttle the data speeds of its biggest data users in an effort to ensure network stability for its first LTE devices, which are expected to launch later this year. It remains unclear how low AT&T will knock the throughput down to, but 9to5 Mac says Virgin currently forces data hogs down to 256Kbps until the next billing cycle after they use more than 2.5GB. T-Mobile also throttles its data speeds after users go over their monthly 5GB “unlimited” cap. The move should actually be beneficial for most AT&T customers looking for stable performance and will only affect those who use much more data than the average customer according to the report.

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Japanese blog Macotakara.jp is reporting from parts makers in Asia that Apple’s upcoming MacBook Air refresh, expected in the next two weeks, will use super-speedy 400Mbps NAND flash storage chips. In addition to being incredibly fast — even faster that the current MacBook Air solution, which uses an mSATA connector to connect the SSD to the motherboard — these new NAND flash storage chips would be soldered directly to the motherboard, bypassing any connector. If true, this new change would result in 100-times performance increase over the current solution, and coupled with a rumored bump to i5 / i7 processors, the new MacBook Airs should absolutely fly.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

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Let’s face it… not all 4G is created equal. When Verizon Wireless’ LTE launched in its first few markets last year, bloggers and media saw blazing fast data speeds in their tests that put other 4G networks to shame. So did we. In fact, on numerous occasions and in numerous device reviews, we called Verizon’s LTE the fastest cellular data service we had ever tested. But a common sentiment rang throughout the Internet: Verizon’s 4G LTE is fast now, but that’s because the network is empty. And Verizon Wireless’ competition mirrored the opinion, of course. In a private conversation about the discrepancy in performance between Sprint’s 4G WiMAX and Verizon’s 4G LTE, a Sprint executive told me that Verizon’s network was so fast because it was empty. “Wait until it fills up,” the exec chuckled. “Then we’ll see if the ThunderBolt still deserves its name.”
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Yes, post-3G cellular networks are important for a variety of reasons; just ask AT&T why it is currently trying to spend $39 billion to acquire T-Mobile USA. I covered some of these reasons in a recent feature. But speed is still of the utmost importance, of course, and Verizon is the undisputed king right now. It also has the youngest 4G network among major U.S. carriers, which include Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network and HSPA+ networks belonging to AT&T and T-Mobile. In my testing in New York City, where I live in Bergen County New Jersey, in San Francisco, in Dallas, and in every other 4G city I’ve visited, Verizon’s LTE network makes the competition look like dial-up.

In the beginning, the congestion argument was a good one for Verizon’s competition to make. Verizon Wireless’ LTE was brand new while other carriers had hundreds of thousands of 4G subscribers. But fast forward to today, and Verizon Wireless 4G is just as fast as ever. I performed about 20 speed tests with a Novatel Wireless 4G MiFi in and around New York City ahead of publishing this piece, and Verizon’s network is just as fast now as it was when it launched in this region. Download speeds ranged from about 6Mbps to over 22Mbps depending on the website I used to test my data speeds, and upload speeds hovered between 2Mbps and 5Mbps. Here are the results from a few of the LTE tests:

So when is the network going to slow down?

We’re half way through 2011 right now and Verizon has been unrelenting in its 4G build-out. The HTC Thunderbolt was a big seller for Verizon, racking up 260,000 activations in the first quarter of 2011, and now Samsung’s DROID Charge is one of the more popular smartphones sold by the carrier. BGR has also confirmed with multiple authorized Verizon Wireless retailers that its 4G mobile hotspots and 4G laptop dongles are among the most popular broadband accessories it sells. Long story short, the network has traffic.

Other U.S. carriers will find a million different ways to argue that their 4G networks are just as good or better than Verizon’s. Maybe Verizon doesn’t have quite as many 4G subscribers… Maybe Sprint’s network performs better in other regions… Maybe AT&T’s 4G network was having a bad day… Maybe I wasn’t sitting in the right spot wearing an aluminum foil hat and facing east when I tested T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network and that’s why peak speeds weren’t higher… Fair enough, but let’s not forget that these same carriers are currently making big investments in 4G LTE. AT&T has confirmed on numerous occasions that it will launch LTE in several markets starting this summer, and now even Sprint is reportedly beginning to invest in 4G LTE as well.

If their current 4G networks are so great, why bother?

Just as Verizon took its trailing position in the smartphone race and turned it on its head to offer what is arguably the best smartphone portfolio in the country, the nation’s top carrier is now doing the same thing with its network. CDMA was old and slow two years ago, and now it’s practically laughable. There’s nothing laughable about a 4G LTE network that consistently outperforms my wireline broadband service, however, and Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile are stuck playing follow the leader.

T-Mobile has just announced that the carrier is doubling the 4G network speed to a whopping 42Mbps in 55 markets. In addition to bumping the network’s speed, T-Mobile is also launching a new product, the Rocket 3.0 USB data stick. The 55 markets that will be able to immediately take advantage of the $99.99 with contract 42Mbps-capable USB data stick are:

• Albany, GA, Athens, GA, Auburn, AL, Augusta, GA, Austin, TX, Bentonville, AK, Boulder, CO, Chattanooga, TN, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL, Denver, CO, Detroit, MI, Durham, NC, El Paso, TX, Fort Collins, CO, Gainesville, FL, Gainesville, GA, Greeley, CO, Honolulu, HI, Houston, TX, Jacksonville, FL, Long Island, NY, Los Angeles, CA, Long Beach, CA, Santa Ana, CA, Macon, GA, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Miami, FL, New Orleans, LA, Oklahoma City, OK, Olympia, WA, Omaha, NE, Oxnard, CA, Thousand Oaks, CA, Ventura, CA, Phoenix, AZ, Pittsburgh, PA, Ponce, Puerto Rico, Portland, OR, Salinas, CA, San Francisco, CA, Oakland, CA, Fremont, CA, San Jose, CA, Sunnyvale, CA, Santa Clara, CA, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Santa Cruz, CA, Watsonville, CA, Santa Rosa, CA, Petaluma, CA, Savannah, CA, Seattle, WA, Spokane, WA, Tampa, FL, Tulsa, OK, Valdosta, GA, Vellejo, CA, Fairfield, CA, Warner Robins, GA, Wichita, KS.

The Rocket 3.0 USB data stick, manufactured by ZTE, goes on sale starting tomorrow, May 25th, and T-Mobile expects over 150 million people to be covered in the company’s increased 4G network speeds in 2011.

AT&T’s “4G” message may be a bit convoluted when its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network begins to bear fruit. The company has already branded its HSPA network as “4G”, although the coverage and real world speeds are less than impressive — especially when compared to other HSPA+ networks, like that of T-Mobile. But that hasn’t stopped the nation’s second largest carrier from working on a second 4G network and, thankfully, this one seems to be bringing the downlink goods. Recently, blog GigaOM was treated to a tour of AT&T’s Foundry laboratory in Texas. The site reports seeing “real world speeds” of 28.87Mbps on the downlink and 10.4Mbps on the uplink. Much better than the paltry 5Mbps down and 1Mbps up being pumped out by the company’s current 4G, HSPA network. AT&T plans to launch its LTE network in several markets by the end of this year and hopefully… these speeds hold up.

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Regional wireless provider U.S. Cellular has officially thrown its hat into the 4G ring. “U.S. Cellular, in conjunction with its partnership with King Street Wireless, announced today that it will deliver high-speed 4G LTE services and 4G-enabled devices to more than 25 percent of its customers across two dozen markets in time for the holiday season,” declares the company’s press release. U.S. Cellular plans to have LTE-enabled devices in market “during the first phase of its 4G LTE rollout” with additional devices populating the carrier’s lineup in 2012. Milwaukee, Madison and Racine, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa; Portland and Bangor, Maine; and Greenville, North Carolina will be among the first markets to be covered by the new, high-speed network. The full press release is after the break.

U.S. CELLULAR TO LAUNCH 4G LTE SERVICE AND DEVICES IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

CHICAGO (May 6, 2011) – U.S. Cellular (NYSE: USM), in conjunction with its partnership with King Street Wireless, announced today that it will deliver high-speed 4G LTE services and 4G-enabled devices to more than 25 percent of its customers across two dozen markets in time for the holiday season. U.S. Cellular customers with 4G LTE devices and service will experience significantly faster data speeds when browsing the web, accessing e-mail, playing games and viewing and streaming videos.

The initial rollout of 4G LTE service for U.S. Cellular, which has the highest call quality and network satisfaction of any national carrier, is planned for selected cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, North Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma. These include some of U.S. Cellular’s leading markets such as Milwaukee, Madison and Racine, Wis.; Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa; Portland and Bangor, Maine; and Greenville, N.C.

“With 4G LTE, our customers will have faster connections to the people, information and entertainment that enhance their lives and help them stay organized,” said Mary N. Dillon, president and CEO of U.S. Cellular. “In addition to our line-up of cutting-edge devices, customers who switch to U.S. Cellular get unique benefits like faster phone upgrades without continuously signing contracts, and join the happiest customers in wireless.”

U.S. Cellular plans to introduce a portfolio of 4G-enabled devices during the first phase of its 4G LTE deployment and will continue to expand its offering through 2012. The rollout builds on the 3G data services that U.S. Cellular customers already enjoy on the carrier’s high-quality nationwide network. More details on the next phases of the company’s 4G LTE deployment will be announced at a later date.

Web browsers always look to strike a balance between speed and functionality, but not enough focus on the former can easily spoil a user’s experience. Mozilla has put a great deal of time and effort working speed improvements into the latest version of its Firefox browser but sometimes all that hard work is for naught due to slow add-ons from third-party developers. In an effort to raise awareness and to push developers to optimize their plugins, perhaps, Mozilla has published a list of the add-ons that slow down Firefox the most. Among the worst offenders are FoxLingo, AniWeather, FoxyTunes and Xmarks Sync. In a bit of irony, an add-on called “FastestFox” that is supposed to speed up browsing by simplifying repetitive tasks is No.8 on Mozilla’s list. If you’ve been experiencing some slowness in Firefox and are wondering which add-ons might be the culprit, hit the read link for Mozilla’s complete list.

[Via Lifehacker]

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BGR on Friday reported on a massive 1,000-test 4G speed study conducted by BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk and his team. Piecyk’s controversial study found that Verizon Wireless’ new 4G LTE network handily beat Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network in the head-to-head speed tests. The tests used the mobile hotspot functions on Verizon’s HTC ThunderBolt and Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G, and found that Verizon’s 4G network averaged 9Mbps down and 5Mbps up while Sprint’s 4G speeds hovered around 1Mbps in each direction. With regard to Sprint and its WiMAX network, these findings are not in line with BGR’s experience. As such, we reached out to Sprint for comment.

“In a word, we find these tests inaccurate,” Sprint spokesperson Stephanie Vinge-Walsh told BGR. “We work closely with an independent third party research company which reports regularly to us on real-world, scientifically tested speeds and the results we see do not match what Piecyk found. We’ve recently seen speeds in NYC (inclusive of New Jersey) averaging 4-5Mbps download.” Recent unscientific speed tests performed by BGR in and around New York City found that Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network consistently delivered between 3 and 5.5Mbps down and around 1.5Mbps up. While we did find Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network to be significantly faster than that during our review of the HTC ThunderBolt, our tests support Sprint’s stance and further suggest that BTIG’s testing may have been flawed.

Sprint’s full statement is as follows:

In a word, we find these tests inaccurate.

We work closely with an independent third party research company which reports regularly to us on real-world, scientifically tested speeds and the results we see do not match what Piecyk found. We’ve recently seen speeds in NYC (inclusive of New Jersey) averaging 4-5Mbps download.

The Verizon 4G LTE network is very new so no one has any fully time-tested data on it yet. As their network gets loaded and more than just one smartphone comes forward on their network, we can better assess its capabilities. In the early days of 4G for Sprint, we saw some very high speed numbers when the Network was launched (much higher than our current speed claims) but what ultimately matters to customers is a consistent, long-standing experience based on a network loaded with customers.

While speed tests will come and go, Sprint continues to offer consumers a dependable 4G network, more 4G devices and a better 4G value – with the only truly unlimited 4G – and we will continue to invest in expanding and enhancing Sprint 4G.

Sprint is no longer the “4G king,” BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk proclaimed on Friday following a massive speed test that pitted Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G against Verizon Wireless’ HTC ThunderBolt. Piecyk and his team conducted more than 1,000 speed tests in New York City to determine which was faster: the ThunderBolt, running on Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network, or the EVO 4G, running on Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network. The analyst found that Verizon’s offering was consistently and significantly faster than Sprint’s 4G phone. The speed tests were conducted using the integrated mobile hotspot functions on both devices, and the testers were equipped with both an Apple iPad 2 and a Toshiba laptop for the tests. In the tests, Verizon’s LTE network averaged speeds of 9Mbps down and 5Mbps up while Sprint’s WiMAX network averaged about 1Mbps both down and up. Verizon’s LTE speeds peaked at 19Mbps down and 10Mbps up during the tests. Piecyk also found that Verizon Wireless’ LTE network was more reliable than Sprint’s WiMAX offering, and it offers better coverage. Adding insult to injury, he says the ThunderBolt has better battery life than the EVO 4G as well. Hit the break for a chart mapping out BTIG’s findings.

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While Verizon Wireless just announced two new 4G LTE devices that are going to serve up insanely fast mobile broadband speeds, Samsung’s 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot is the first one in our hands. We’ve been rockin’ and rollin’ over Verizon’s 4G LTE network for a little while thanks to the new mobile hotspot, and we’re happy to report extremely fast speeds around 12Mbps down and 5.5Mbps up on average — the fastest speeds that the device is rated for. In terms of size, it’s just a tad thicker than the original Novatel MiFi unit we rely on for our mobile connectivity. We haven’t had enough time to test battery life for ourselves, but we’ll report back. The Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot is available online from Verizon Wireless starting today, and will be in stores beginning tomorrow for $99.99 with a two-year service agreement. Check out our hands-on gallery with some comparison photos!

A recent study performed by Ottowa-based Blaze Software reveals that Android’s mobile Web browser is significantly faster than the mobile Safari browser found on Apple’s iPhone. Blaze performed 45,000 separate tests using 1,000 different websites along with its mobile measurement service, and found that Android was 52% faster on average. The firm utilized the latest Android devices running Android 2.2 and Android 2.3 in the tests, and pitted them against iPhone 4 handsets running both iOS 4.2 and iOS 4.3. “We were very surprised by the results,” said Blaze CTO and Co-founder Guy Podjarnyin a statement. “We assumed that it would be closer race and that the latest JavaScript speed improvements would have a more material impact on performance. The fact that Android beat iPhone by such a large margin was not expected.” Hit the break for the full press release.

iPhone vs. Android – 45,000 Tests Prove Whose Browser is Faster

Ottawa, ON, March 17, 2011 – Blaze Software Inc released today the largest ever research study of smart phone browser performance. The purpose of the study was to determine once and for all which of the two leading smart phone vendors has the fastest browser.

Mobile Web browser usage is exploding. Emarketer estimates that 44.1% of US citizens will leverage mobile Internet by 2014. To capture market interest in mobile browsing, smart phone vendors have been aggressively touting the speed improvements in their products. However, due to the lack of mobile measurement tools, it has been difficult to measure which smart phone actually has the faster browser.

After taking over 45,000 measurements on the latest iPhone and Android devices, the study found that Android was 52% faster than iPhone on average. Android finished loading a Web page faster on 84% of the 1000 Websites tested. The study also found that the despite significant JavaScript performance gains in the latest Apple iOS 4.3 release and Google Android 2.3 releases, these improvement made no measurable improvement on the actual page load times of the sites tested.

“We were very surprised by the results”, said Guy Podjarny, Blaze CTO and Co-Founder. “We assumed that it would be closer race and that the latest JavaScript speed improvements would have a more material impact on performance. The fact that Android beat iPhone by such a large margin was not expected”.

What makes this study unique is the size of the study and the fact that it used real phones on real world websites to make the measurements. Past studies have often used fabricated benchmark sites or manual measurements on a small number of sites. This study was made possible through custom apps developed to measure page load time on mobile devices. These apps run on the actual devices, load a page on demand, and measure how long it took. These agents are available as a free service to measure any site with the Blaze Mobitest Tool.

Detailed blog post on the Blaze Mobile Measurement Study
For more information on the details results and methodology of the study, please see: www.blaze.io/blog

For more information on the Mobile measurement service
Blaze’s mobile measurement service can be found at: www.blaze.io/mobile

About Blaze
Blaze was founded in 2010 with a mission to help clients deliver better performing Web businesses by optimizing websites to increase website speed.  Blaze provides a hosted Web Performance Optimization service that improves frontend performance and reduces operational costs. For more information, see: www.blaze.io

4G. It’s everywhere. It’s on the tech sites you read. It’s on the televisions you watch. It’s plastered in advertisements all over the city streets you walk. It was probably in the sandwich you ate for lunch. Cellular carriers around the world are betting the bank on 4G — be it LTE, WiMAX or the newly knighted HSPA+ — and 4G-enabled gear is already starting to flood the market despite the lack of nationwide coverage.

Sprint was first to market with 4G here in the U.S. since HSPA+ was still just 3G at the time, and the carrier now has several 4G smartphones and 4G modems available for sale. Verizon Wireless is about to launch its first 4G phone, the highly anticipated HTC ThunderBolt, and AT&T will begin the process of replacing its HSPA+ 4G network with an LTE 4G network later this year. Even smaller carriers like MetroPCS are getting in on the action. In fact, MetroPCS became the first U.S. carrier to launch an LTE phone last year when it released the Samsung Craft.

Not long ago, 4G was a myth in terms of available technology. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defined 4G as cellular service that provides peak download speeds of approximately 100Mbps in high-mobility environments (cell phones) and peak download speeds of approximately 1Gbps in low-mobility environments. LTE, WiMAX and HSPA+ don’t even come close to fitting that definition. This is no longer the case, however. Carriers are spending billions of dollars on these next-generation technologies and millions more advertising them. And so, not surprisingly, the ITU recently shifted its position and amended its definition of 4G to include current technologies. That worked out nicely.

Semantics aside, 4G services like LTE and WiMAX are where cellular technology is headed and eventually we’ll all embrace these new networks. We know 4G is a big deal to carriers because they’re spending bucket loads of money on these technologies, but all the hype right now surrounds speed. Speed? T-Mobile’s HSPA+ is often faster than these newer 4G technologies, as we recently saw in a recent nationwide speed test. So, does 4G really matter? Cut through all the marketing, advertising, speed tests and hype, and the answer is still yes — but perhaps not solely for the reason you think.

4G networks based on LTE and WiMAX will play an important role in empowering the future of the wireless industry. Yes, they have the potential to afford speeds that exceed the limitations of older cellular technologies like CDMA, EDGE, EV-DO and HSPA, but some might consider that a benefit of lesser importance than the capability these networks have to accommodate more traffic. Just ask AT&T, which has been taking hits in mind share ever since the mass of iPhone users began crippling its data network. Of course Apple’s inexperience with building cell phones continues to play a large role in AT&T’s current situation, but that’s another article entirely.

Without getting overly technical, new 4G networks based on LTE and WiMAX make use of technologies that will better accommodate the sharp rise in cell phone usage we’re currently seeing the the U.S. and other markets. The use of technologies like Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna technology result in a more efficient use of spectrum, better signal coverage and — most importantly, perhaps — more capacity.

Think of your cellular connection as a highway. Older 3G technologies might have two or three lanes in each direction. When traffic is light, the highway is more than suitable to get you from A to B quickly, efficiently and painlessly. Problems arise as rush hour approaches, however, and it could now take hours to get to the same destination that would take just 20 minutes in light traffic.

Now, think of LTE and WiMAX as a highway that offers 10 lanes in each direction. It might have the same 65 MPH speed limit as the narrower highway, but traffic will keep moving along just fine when rush hour rolls around.

It’s far more difficult to convey this benefit in advertising, and users naturally consider speed to be of great importance — especially after being conditioned by wireline broadband services and the ISPs that provide them. As such, speed will continue to be at the forefront of all marketing messages carriers deliver to the public surrounding 4G. But rest assured, carriers need the added capacity afforded by LTE and WiMAX networks if they are to survive. Moreover, developers need the capacity so they can continue innovating, and subscribers need it so they can use all these great new services without experiencing 10 car pile-ups on a regular basis.

We’re now in the midst of rush hour and 3G highways are far too narrow to handle the congestion.

We just returned from our friendly local Apple store and waded through the chaos to grab a pair of iPad 2 models to share with you — one white and one black. Our initial impressions? Apple has really evolved the tablet category it pioneered, and in almost every way possible. The iPad 2 is thinner, lighter and faster than the first-generation model it replaces. The end result is that the iPad 2 feels like something you want to use more and more, even more so than the first unit. Apps launch instantly, Web browsing is much faster and Photo Booth is ridiculously cool, if not completely useless except for those rare occasions. We obviously haven’t had enough time to go in-depth with things like the cameras or battery yet, but that’s all coming soon. For now, check out some photos of both models after the break in our gallery.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference this afternoon, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo told investors that Verizon Wireless plans to move to tiered data plans in the near future. The plans, which could roll out as early as this summer, may be based on consumption, speed, or a combination of the two. “We are still working on the models,” said Mr. Shammo. The CFO mentioned that Verizon Wireless consciously decided against a tiered data option with the recently launched iPhone 4, noting that the company did not want to dissuade any potential buyers. When asked about the unlimited $30 data plan currently being offered for smartphones, Mr. Shammo quipped, “Everyone knows that isn’t long-term. We will move to tiered pricing in the mid-summer time frame.” What do you think Big Red customers? Sound off in the comments.

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